Obama-era ethics chief defends tweet urging people to stock up and 'take the streets' if Trump fires Mueller

The former head of the Office of Government Ethics,
Walter Shaub, hit back at critics of his recent viral tweet in
an interview with Business Insider.

Shaub wrote that he was "stocking up on portable phone
chargers, warm clothes, & gear needed for when we take the
streets" if Trump fires special counsel Robert
Mueller.

Shaub said the resulting backlash was a "coordinated
attack" from those who are fearful of what the Mueller probe
will show.

Walter Shaub, the former head of the Office of Government Ethics
under Presidents Barack Obama and Donald Trump, hit back at
critics of his recent viral tweet in an interview with Business
Insider.

Ad

Shaub, who resigned earlier this year from the post ahead of his
five-year term's completion, tweeted over the weekend that he was
"stocking up on portable phone chargers, warm clothes, & gear
needed for when we take the streets" if Trump fires special
counsel Robert Mueller.

"I'm concerned the assault on the rule of law is coming over the
holidays when we're distracted," he wrote, linking to a
MoveOn.Org March he signed up for. "It'll be a defining moment
for the Republic."

Conservatives quickly roasted Shaub, an Obama appointee, for the
tweet, which has more than 12,000 retweets and 24,000 likes.

"This is unhinged," tweeted conservative writer
David French. "Sane people stock up for the inevitable zombie
apocalypse, not political revolution."

The tweet even got placement on the "Fox & Friends" morning show, which Trump
watches frequently.

'My first experience of maybe drawing the Eye of Sauron'

Responding to some of the backlash, Shaub, who frequently clashed
with the Trump administration in his past role, said it was the
first time he had experienced such a response to one of his
tweets.

"I have to say this was my first experience of maybe drawing the
Eye of Sauron and have them unleash the trolls and bots on me,"
he said, noting the number of "likes" he received on his tweet.
"It was fascinating to watch because a large number of them,
hundreds, responded with violent threatening statements like they
were going to shoot everyone who was marching or they were going
to run them over in the streets."

"And of course that's unfortunate imagery after the same
tiki-torch wielding crowd murdered a woman in Charlottesville,"
he continued. "But I think to some extent, they were effective in
ginning up the propaganda blogs like The Daily Caller in trying
to spin it into something more than it was."

He said he was flabbergasted about how anyone could read his
tweet and interpret it as a call for violence, noting that the
items he was talking about gathering ahead of a possible march
were for obviously non-violent purposes. For example, he said,
the phone batteries would allow him to tweet.

"There is literally no way to read that as anything other than a
statement that we were going to do a peaceful protest, because it
was a retweet of a statement that I had signed up for this
march," he said. "And when you look at the march webpage, you
cannot sign up for it unless you click the box that says you
promise to be non-violent and you promise to comply with all law
enforcement instructions. I don't know how much clearer it
could've possibly been."

He said the negative response to his tweet amounted to a
"coordinated attack" from those on the right who are "very
frightened by this investigation and want to do anything they can
to shut it down."

"But unfortunately, the way these internet things work nowadays
with the bots and the trolls, they try to spin a thing as much as
they can and sort of inflame viewpoints people already have," he
said. "That was fascinating."